Re: Unsung Treasures

(Sorry if repeat---appears not to have posted 1st time.)
Confession: This is my favorite thread ever on basenotes. I apologize if these have been mentioned already. But three unsung that I love:

Estee Lauder's Estee--Always mentioned in 'insecticide florals' discussions. (Caveat--I often like insecticide florals.) I find this a very appealing woody floral. When applied lightly, it has a beautiful arc over time. For you Bernard Chant fans, this is one of his often unmentioned perfumes. I have the pure fragrance spray, but there is another (sport spray or the like) but I believe they are effectively the same. Quite inexpensive and found in any of the dept stores that sell the other Lauder fragrances.

Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria Anisia Bella----Spectacular summer fragrance. An interesting treatise on anise, both direct and complex over time. Made by one of my fav perfumers, Aurelian Guichard. In fact, when I wrote my review of Anisia Bella on basenotes, it ended up seeming a bit like a teenage girl's fan letter. Great fragrance nonetheless, and though discontinued, easy to find on the cheap.

Ines de la Fressange (1999. There is one by the same name from 2004. It is an entirely different fragrance--not a reformulation.) The 1999 is an interesting tuberose-floral that I have to say is not so much odd as an uncommon style. It's got dry peach skin, styrax, woods. Gorgeous, distinctive. If looking for it, it's the one in the octagonal alternatingly clear and frosted glass bottle, not the one with a sort of diagonally draped gold top (2004 fruity floral.) Discontinued, currently still easily found, outrageously cheap. Very few comments to be found on it, but I think it's smart and wonderful.

Re: Unsung Treasures

I love Estee, too! And it is very affordable, bless Estee Lauder for keeping their classics. Evangeline wore it as SotD one day this week, and that got me thinking about it again. I didn't know it was a Bernard Chant creation. My husband said Estee smelled like hand soap (hopefully nice hand soap) when I sampled Estee once while we were out shopping. At least he didn't say bug spray. I pay no mind to "bug spray" remarks. That just makes me prick up my ears all the more, lol! I've always heard good things about Anisia Bella, though never tried it. I've never heard of the third one you mention.

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I 'd like to add a special edition of AVON which was launched in 2008 and the years followed discontinued and nowadays is very rare ti trace a bottle is MARK EARTH (Mark Earth by Avon is a wonderful and lush blend of green notes, flowers and warm woods, )

LOVE IS BEST http://sophiloves.simplesite.com/429114763
" I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give 'em what they never knew they wanted." DiANA VREELAND

Re: Unsung Treasures

Oh, Knit, very interested to hear what you think! When i posted my review of it i was quite surprised to see that i was the only basenoter who had. I should warn this wasn't an, "Oh, Yes!!" fragrances on first sniff. More a quizzical, "Hhmmmm..." but i kept coming back and coming back. I quite love it now and almost more importantly admire it. Constantly dumbstruck to realize it is a 1999 fragrance. Utterly out of step with its era. Please let me know what you think.

Hillaire, am out of town at the moment but my blind buy of Patrick of Ireland should be waiting for me when i get home! Sounds right up my alley. Tedious flight and instead of trash novel and movies wrote about 10 perfume reviews. Will post when i can.

Re: Unsung Treasures

Cabotine sensuelle by GRES
White florals(mostly gardenia) with prominent the sweetness of Vanilla,heliotrope(intensive) and almond(intensive)...very creamy ,velvet and sensual(no wonder about the name)...
I can't ignore the presence of a bit carnation spiciness ...

Juicy and gourmand top notes are composed of tangerine, peach and almond; rich flowers are in the heart: carnation, jasmine, gardenia and heliotrope; the base is made of vanilla, musk and patchouli

LOVE IS BEST http://sophiloves.simplesite.com/429114763
" I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give 'em what they never knew they wanted." DiANA VREELAND

Re: Unsung Treasures

One of my favorites (even after some niche exposure) is the discontinued Dreams by Tabu.
Now if you are expecting the spicey richness/skankiness? of Tabu look elsewhere .If you like soft well blended fruity florals proceed on ahead.
The notes to this beauty are(according to Fragrantica)
Top: Bergamot,Freesia,Magnolia
Mid:Blackberry,Cassis,Peony,Lily of the Valley
Base:White Peach,Sandlewood,Musk ,Vanilla
I think the nearest scents I can relate this to are Lucky#6 by a Liz Claibourne brand and Trish McCavoy Blackberry and Vanilla Musk.Both of these blended together and "watercolored" (vs oil paints or acrylics )to give a visual analogy.

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by jtd

Oh, Knit, very interested to hear what you think! When i posted my review of it i was quite surprised to see that i was the only basenoter who had. I should warn this wasn't an, "Oh, Yes!!" fragrances on first sniff. More a quizzical, "Hhmmmm..." but i kept coming back and coming back. I quite love it now and almost more importantly admire it. Constantly dumbstruck to realize it is a 1999 fragrance. Utterly out of step with its era. Please let me know what you think.

Hillaire, am out of town at the moment but my blind buy of Patrick of Ireland should be waiting for me when i get home! Sounds right up my alley. Tedious flight and instead of trash novel and movies wrote about 10 perfume reviews. Will post when i can.

Oh, I cannot WAIT to hear your impressions! I am actually such a fan of this mossy fougere, I have bought quite a bit to gift the men I know!

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thanks to this thread, I also have a long list of 'wants' which are sure to inflict further damage to my bank balance :-( If any Aussie BNers are reading this and like the idea of doing sample swaps, please get in touch :-)

Last edited by msveronica9; 1st August 2011 at 03:09 AM.
Reason: corrections to list

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by jtd

Oh, Knit, very interested to hear what you think! When i posted my review of it i was quite surprised to see that i was the only basenoter who had. I should warn this wasn't an, "Oh, Yes!!" fragrances on first sniff. More a quizzical, "Hhmmmm..." but i kept coming back and coming back. I quite love it now and almost more importantly admire it. Constantly dumbstruck to realize it is a 1999 fragrance. Utterly out of step with its era. Please let me know what you think.

Oh dear, jtd I believe I have purchased a different version of Ines de la Fressage. The bottle mine came in is a very fancy gold and embossed leaf affair, which is not pictured in the I dl F review you posted, but is shown in the 2004 issue. No matter because ...I would never have tried without your post and experienced a resounding "Oh, YES". Now I just have to get the original version, too.

Right out of the bottle this has a juicy black current/ black berry note that is gorgeous and put me immediately in mind of Delrae Roth's Bois de Paradis. The heart and drydown are reminiscent of Olivier Strelli or a less sweet version of the original Adrienne Vittadini. I already want a back up bottle.....thanks jtd

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by knit at nite

Oh dear, jtd I believe I have purchased a different version of Ines de la Fressage. The bottle mine came in is a very fancy gold and embossed leaf affair, which is not pictured in the I dl F review you posted, but is shown in the 2004 issue. No matter because ...I would never have tried without your post and experienced a resounding "Oh, YES". Now I just have to get the original version, too.

Right out of the bottle this has a juicy black current/ black berry note that is gorgeous and put me immediately in mind of Delrae Roth's Bois de Paradis. The heart and drydown are reminiscent of Olivier Strelli or a less sweet version of the original Adrienne Vittadini. I already want a back up bottle.....thanks jtd

Hi, Knit,

So glad you like the I dl F that you got! I've always wondered what it was like. How funny that a planned unsniffed purchase became an inadvertent unsniffed purchase---and that it worked to your advantage! Now of course I'm wondering what I'm missing having only the 1999 version. I may just have to take the plunge on the 2004.

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by Hillaire

Oh, I cannot WAIT to hear your impressions! I am actually such a fan of this mossy fougere, I have bought quite a bit to gift the men I know!

I've tried Patrick of Ireland for a couple of days now and just love it! I see the connection to Paco Rabanne pour Homme, but Patrick is really its own thing. I'm in hot southern California now and this is one of the better fougeres for hot climates. The musk somehow maintains the coumarin soapy thing and Patrick just blooms in the heat. Thanks for informing us on this one! Another winner from this thread. (And you're so smart to supply this to men you know. I wouldn't mind being surrounded by this.)

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by jtd

I've tried Patrick of Ireland for a couple of days now and just love it! I see the connection to Paco Rabanne pour Homme, but Patrick is really its own thing. I'm in hot southern California now and this is one of the better fougeres for hot climates. The musk somehow maintains the coumarin soapy thing and Patrick just blooms in the heat. Thanks for informing us on this one! Another winner from this thread. (And you're so smart to supply this to men you know. I wouldn't mind being surrounded by this.)

Oh, jtd, I am thrilled to learn it's a hit with you! It's a true mossy scent, and it's such a relief to smell something modern that uses so much oakmoss.

Re: Unsung Treasures

Tonight I want to add a couple of really affordable mens fragrances, which are both totally unisex classics and both more forgotten than ''unsung".

The first one is the vintage formulation of Monsieur Givenchy. I recently discovered this incredible tart-and-soapy sandalwood masterpice is available on ebay, in its vintage formulation.... DIRT CHEAP. Needless to say, I bought some, but I also felt inspired to spread the word.

It's one of the classic Givenchys they chose to 'bring back; in their expensive 'Exclusifs' line, but the new formulation is nothing more than a pale nod to reformulated Chanel Pour Monsieur.

The magic of the original Monsieur Givenchy is its redolent-and-true sandalwood note that it ultimately dries down to.
It's rich, lingering and really high quality. (If you know what real sandalwood essential oil goes for these days, you understand that these old bottles of MG are probably worth their weight in gold!)

I remember discovering this fragrance in my teens, at the exact time I discovered Givenchy's other mens masterpiece Givenchy Gentleman. I procured samples of both took them home to try. They struck me then as the perfect true sandalwood scent and the perfect true patchouli scent respectively (I found only the MG feminine enough to buy and wear at that time).
And I still consider it the best sandalwood scent ever (except maybe Crabtree & Evelyn's now-unthinkably-expensive Santal Mysore).

But, as I mentioned, I can only advocate its original formulation. I have come across several reviews that characterize it as being a bright, citrusy fougere that lies between Chanel's PM and YSL's YSL PH; this observation is likely of the new formulation, or maybe of the older formulation's top notes exclusively. I promise,it departs from being a Chanel PM clone in its drydown, where it evolves into a really warm, smooth, buttery, ashy, soapy sandalwood fragrance.

Look out for bottles that sport a wrap-around label or are smaller, black-capped atomizers. Classic-style Givenchy bottles with labels that are small and sit in the middle of the face-side indicate the reformulated version that preceded the latest, "Exclusifs" offering. You'll want to avoid these; they don't use the natural-smelling sandalwood.
Here's a good one:

Re: Unsung Treasures

The other mens fragrance I'd like to revive tonight isMonsieur Muskby Houbignant (or Dana) from 1973. This has always been my favorite 'clean' musk smell; it's sweet, heady, and plush with a really classic attitude. This is as unisex as unisex could be; I'd even recommend it to young women as an finer alternative to JLo Glow.

I was so excited to discover it's totally still cheap cheap cheap (and undiscovered). It's another one that would be mistaken for niche in a sample line-up because it's really simple and sophisticated. This is almost a must-have for musk lovers. I don't know how long it's been out of production, but it seems there are still lots of bottles around on the internet.

Probably the original bottles that still have Houbigant on the box as the house are the most desirable (I recall my grandfather had a bottle of that one), but I can testify to the quality and loveliness of the Dana version.

I have one like this:

And one like this:

My grandfather's bottle looked like this one offered by an ebay seller:

Re: Unsung Treasures

Re: Unsung Treasures

I am so excited to tell everyone about my latest Unsung discovery!!

Firstly, if there was one celebrity perfume line of all time that stood out above the rest, it was Priscilla Presley's. I like to think it was her artisitc direction, that ol Prissy had some crazy good taste, but who knows?

Moments is maybe my favorite dark, civety rose chypre these days, but good lord is it expensive, but I guess it's kind of on par with Soir de Lune and a lot less than Portrait of a Lady. Oh, it's very much like the original Montana Parfum de Peau. So if you want to spend 150USD on a great fragrance, you cannot go wrong with it.

I also cannot say enough nice things about Indian Summer, another chypre, which is both fresh and complex, and totally unique smelling. Also pretty pricey though.

But my rave tonight is about Roses and More. It's sick that it can be bought for 5USD on ebay, and that it's so FREAKING good.
To make it simple, it sits squarely between Tresor and Amouage Dia Woman. I don't happen to like Tresor, as it's screechy to my nose, but RaM doesn't have that aspect at all, rather it has the peachy-boozy aspect of Tresor I rather like. As for its resemblance to Dia, I have been searching high and low for anything close to it for years, and this is not only the closest thing, it's the dadgum jackpot. The opening is almost exactly the same! (And, yes, I have done a side by side).

Re: Unsung Treasures

Carthusia 1681

1681 was quite a good surprise for me even if I'm not particularly fond of Carthusia's fragrances. An iris driven opening pleasantly leaning towards the waxy side (lipstick) and enriched by herbs (rosemary), lavender and musk. The frankincense note is remarkably present throughout adding some depth expecially in the middle phase. Woody patterns and hints of neroli/bergamot enhance the classic aspect of this "modern" masculine composition.

Overall 1861 is quite an unique fragrance that's at the same time very wearable yet anything but silly. Distinctive and discreet, classic and modern, somehow "serious". Love it.

Re: Unsung Treasures

Originally Posted by Hillaire

To make it simple, it sits squarely between Tresor and Amouage Dia Woman. I don't happen to like Tresor, as it's screechy to my nose, but RaM doesn't have that aspect at all, rather it has the peachy-boozy aspect of Tresor I rather like. As for its resemblance to Dia, I have been searching high and low for anything close to it for years, and this is not only the closest thing, it's the dadgum jackpot. The opening is almost exactly the same! (And, yes, I have done a side by side).

You had me at DIA... so yes, I succumbed to the Roses and More blind-buy bugaboo, but at less than $10 including shipping -- what the heck? I'll report back when it arrives!

Re: Unsung Treasures

Bumping thread with a report:
Still happily investigating scents from this thread. I almost had a bottle of the Bleu de Chine by Marc de la Morandiere recently from e-bay. (heavy sigh) The seller cancelled the transaction and refunded the purchase price when he said he broke the bottle while packing it. Darn.

I did just get a 30 ml EDT of Genny as pictured in persephone88's post will sample today for the first time.

Originally Posted by Persephone88

A couple of more recommendations:

Bleu de Chine by Marc de la Morandiere - gorgeous floral chypre with a hint of spice

Re: Unsung Treasures

Having loved the original white floral extravaganza that is Murmure by Van Cleef & Arpels, and being a big fan of Ylang Ylang, I've often wondered what the Murmure Ylang Ylang de Madagascar is like.
Anyone?

Re: Unsung Treasures

I found a small bottle of this Musk for Men, the Houbignant version, at an estate sale for a couple of bucks. As a masculine, it's right up there with other classics like Guerlain's Vetiver, imho. Very clean, barbershop, James Bond-ish scent.